Anna Gunn Responds To Skyler Hate

"Breaking Bad" actress Anna Gunn has posted a must-read op-ed piece about the backlash the actress receives due to the arc of her character Skyler White on the AMC series.

Penning the feature for The New York Times, Gunn says her character has become "a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, nonsubmissive, ill-treated women".

According to her, the show's creator Vince Gilligan "wanted Skyler to be a woman with a backbone of steel who would stand up to whatever came her way, who wouldn’t just collapse in the corner or wring her hands in despair. He and the show’s writers made Skyler multilayered and, in her own way, morally compromised. But at the end of the day, she hasn’t been judged by the same set of standards as Walter."

Yet the actress was "unprepared for the vitriolic response she inspired," and more importantly became concerned when "the character of Skyler seemed to drop out of the conversation, and people transferred their negative feelings directly to me. The already harsh online comments became outright personal attacks."

She admits she's had to take steps to ensure her safety, even though she realises that "most people’s hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender."